Last Farewell: My Grandma

Pahimakas: Aking Lola (Last Farewell: My Grandma) is a personal project documenting my grandmother, Diodora Castañeda, who died in January 2024 from Parkinson’s disease, a neurodegenerative disorder that affects the central nervous and motor system. This documentary photography project started in June 2023 and continued until her death last year. The series explores the grim realities of Parkinson’s disease.

What does it mean to die slowly? My grandmother had Parkinson’s Dementia, which has a particular effect on thinking and reasoning skills, particularly on memory as well as the degradation of her muscles. I started researching and photographing this project in the beginning of 2023 when I visited my grandmother in the Philippines. She died on 13 January 2024. These images capture her battle with Parkinson’s and brings it into dialogue with archival images from her time in motherhood. The form of the collage helps to visually contrast how my grandmother looked at a young age as opposed to when she was diagnosed with Parkinson's and how drastically the body is affected by this disease.

To learn more about artists exploring representations of illness, read Ketaki Varma's reflections on Sohrab Hura's work Bittersweet (2019), Annalisa Mansukhani's observations on Cheryl Mukherjee's practice and Najrin Islam's review of Naeem Mohaiemen’s Jole Dobe Na (2020).

All images are from Pahimakas, Aking Lola (2023–24) by Macy Castañeda-Lee. Images courtesy of the artist.

Click on the image to view the album